Crown Heights-based R&B musician Garth Taylor — who performs under the name “Garth.” — is crowning Crown Heights this fall with his forthcoming album, “Coronation.”
“Supernova,” the first single off Garth’s upcoming album “Coronation,” was released on July 28. The song is peppy, filled with twangy guitar riffs, dreamy sighing background vocals and swaggering lyrics.
The attitude of “Supernova” is encapsulated in its opening lines: “When I open up my mouth, I’m on everybody’s lips.”
“I wanted to make something feel-good and upbeat, and a little ignorant,” Taylor said. “We wanted to bring the energy of a Bruno Mars song. Like, 'You are feeling good about yourself; you're getting ready to go.'”
Taylor, who has lived in Crown Heights for the past two years, co-wrote and recorded “Supernova” with Brooklyn-based producer Cale Hawkins. The latest song is in line with his sonic language, which often combines elements of R&B and funk.
"I really had a new sense of community moving to Brooklyn. A lot of my musician friends, my bandmates lived here. Like, I'm talking the next street over," Taylor said.
Taylor’s influences include Prince, Beyoncé and Mariah Carey, who he said he has a lot in common with.
“Check Mariah Carey's lyrics; she's also very ignorant,” Taylor said. “1990 Mariah Carey and 2005 Mariah Carey? Different women. You know, both important staples of music. But when she started saying, ‘Them chickens is ash and I'm lotion,’ that's when you're like, ‘Oh.’ As the youth say these days, she's so 'unserious.' And so am I.”
Frivolous lyrics are just as important as danceable beats to Taylor, who writes all his music with an eye toward performance.
“I grew up going to a Black church in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “I feel like that had an impact on me as to what my expectations of a live performance would be. I'm always trying to infuse my show with those sounds — like synth sounds and guitar and bass. Honestly, it's Black music. And I got to see it firsthand for 18 years.”
Born in Boston and raised in D.C.’s Maryland and Virginia area, Taylor started playing piano in childhood. He then went to a performing arts high school where he experimented with various instruments in orchestra and jazz band.
Despite being surrounded by music, Taylor didn’t use his voice until college.
At Wesleyan University, which he graduated from in 2012, Taylor was part of a selective a cappella group called the Wesleyan Spirits. Through his involvement in the Spirits, he also joined the Vineyard Sound, a professional a cappella group that performs seasonally on Martha’s Vineyard.
On top of all the a cappella, Taylor became involved with on-campus bands.
“I had a bootcamp of singing, unlike most people get. I was singing all the time,” Taylor said.
After graduation, Taylor continued to perform with his college band. Following the band’s split, he began his solo career as Garth. in 2017.
“I was working on my own solo stuff two years before, just because I felt like I should have something that's mine,” said Taylor.
“When you start seeing things unravel slowly, you have to kind of take a step back and say, ‘This will either be my last stop on my musical journey, or I'm going to need to create things because I want to create them.’”
Today, Garth. has more than 23,000 monthly Spotify listeners and plans on continuing his solo career in Crown Heights.
“Golden Lights,” the next single off of “Coronation,” will be dropped soon, Taylor said.
"Coronation" will come out this fall and will be announced on his website and social media.
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